Progress in the treatment of childhood acute leukemia: a review

Abstract

The dramatic improvements in the survival experience for children diagnosed with acute leukemia are analyzed using data collected through hospitals participating in the National Cancer Institute's End Results Group Program between 1950 and 1973. Children under 15 years of age who were diagnosed with both acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) showed moderate improvements in the 1950s, but beginning in the 1960s those with ALL did far better. Statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level were noted between their three-year survival rates for all cohorts analyzed between 1960 and 1973. For the 1970-1973 cohort, three-year survival rates were 49% and 20% for ALL and ANLL, respectively, and five-year survival rates were 34% and 12%. Between 1950 and 1976 the age-adjusted incidence rate for all childhood leukemias remained relatively stable in a sample of five geographic areas, changing from 4.6 per 100,000 children under 15 years of age to 4.3 per 100,000. In contrast, the corresponding age-adjusted mortality rate fell approximately 45% over the same period, from 4.4 per 100,000 to 2.4 per 100,000.